Android App Review: CyanogenMod/ClockworkMod BBQ

Alrighty, members of the Android nation. It's Friday, and that can mean only one thing: Big Android BBQ time in Austin, Texas. If you're making the trek to the great state of Texas (or are lucky enough to live here like me!), you must get this app.

What does it do? I'm not sure exactly. It promises free bacon, and I know I'm not the only member of the Android loyal who doesn't want to miss out on some free bacon. The kicker? It only works at the BBQ!

But hey, it's free and it promises you the opportunity of winning free stuff. Plus, look at the funny icon! It's a combination of the Cyanogen and ClockworkMod logo, and the Android is wearing a funny little chef hat! Priceless.

If you're getting your BBQ on this weekend (look for Phil and myself!), we've got download links after the break.

SwiftKey X update brings heat map, stat panel and more

One of the many great things about the Android platform is that there is such a wide variety of keyboards to chose from, and many great developers behind them. The folks at SwiftKey X have been known for some amazing updates, and they have hit it out of the park, yet again. Their latest update brings a slew of new features, such as:

Blog and RSS learning, so you can personalize based on your previous posts;

A heatmap that shows how accurately you type on your keyboard (these insights are used by SwiftKey to make predictions more accurate);

A new stats panel that gives great insights into what SwiftKey is doing for you, which you can share with your friends;

Language layout switching for users who use different keyboard layouts (e.g. English/Russian users);

The reintroduction of the autocaps toggle for those who wish to always write in lower case.

In addition to all these new features, they have made many "improvements" better error reporting, instant language updates, and several others. They have also addressed some bugs that affected various users, greatly improving the overall experience. If you are a current SwiftKey X user be sure to grab the update, and if you don't currently use it now would be a great time to check it out. Download links after the break.

Update - Swiftkey is rolling this update out over the next day or two apparently, so keep your eye out for the update!

Foursquare updated - Now includes lists and sorting of friends

The latest Foursquare update for Android is now available for download in the Android Market. Nothing huge will be found here like previous versions where we got a whole new UI but lists is now included and that's been lacking on the Android front until now.

Lists for Android! Wooo!

Points for check-ins are now in the post check-in screen.

Connect your Twitter account via the Settings screen.

Sort Friends by Nearby or Worldwide on Friends screen. Hit the menu or list footer.

All of those things should help keep things more organized and functional for all you Foursquare users out there. You can jump past the break for the update link or just fire up the Android Market if you already have Foursqaure installed.

Postcard on the Run lets you easily drop word to friends and family

Since we're on the road so much, we're always on the lookout for a good postcard app. And an old favorite was just released for Andronid. Postcard on the Run has a great UI, with easy instructions and options to use pictures from the camera, your gallery or even Facebook. Pick the pic, and Postcard on the Run mails it anywhere in the world.

But what if you don't know the physical address? (That's a common problem in a lot of address books these days.) Postard on the Run has its "Postal Gopher." Just give it the e-mail address or cell phone number of the person you're trying to send to, and it'll contact them, then update your address book and send. Other options include cropping the photo, leaving a message, adding a real signature (as in sign with your finger) and even a GPS map of your location you're sending from. It's pretty slick.

Prices vary from 99 cents to $1.69 per postcard sent (add 20 cents for international), and you can pay by credit card or PayPal. (We'd love to see in-app billing added so we don't have to enter our credit card -- again.)

We'll be giving this one a go this weekend from the Big Android BBQ, no doubt. Hit up the download links after the break.

Android Quick App: Intimity - For the ladies

Any woman can tell you, tracking your monthly cycle is not the most fun thing ever. Trying to plan around it can be a real pain, and let's just be honest, it's really not the easiest thing to stay on top of. We have enough going on in our daily lives without having to stop and try to calculate if today is an especially good day to get pregnant or if that spontaneous weekend trip is going to be hindered by mother nature. Intimity is a new app aimed to make it all effortless, so that with a glance at your screen, you can tell what your body is planning for you.

Getting started is pretty simple. Simply input a few dates and indicate if you are trying to get pregnant or not, and the app does the rest for you. The main screen shows the current date, the day of your cycle you're on, and if it's a fertile, not fertile, or ovulation day. It was funny to me that the picture of the girl changes depending on those circumstances; if you're not trying to conceive, on fertile days she's dressed very prim and proper, and on non-fertile days she's ready to party - and vice versa if you are trying to conceive. Options at the bottom of this screen take you to view a monthly calendar that is in the shape of a flower with many petals. Spin the flower to choose a date, and you can enter notes, weight, mood and other details. You can even view statistics about your cycles and be notified when it's time to take birth control.

All in all Intimity is a handy app that takes much of the guess work out of at least this aspect of being a woman. Whether you're trying to get pregnant, or trying NOT to get pregnant, this app can be a great tool to use. You can grab it in the Android Market for $1.35. Download links and screenshots are after the break!

Android kids app: The Ogglies - A Dragon Party

Chances are your kid likes dragons and will also jump at the chance to say "firebottom." Why not combine the two with the children's book "The Ogglies - A Dragon Party for Firebottom." It's the latest in a nice little run of interactive children's books now available on Android. "Firebottom" also has puzzles and music thrown in, so you're not just reading the book.

It's on sale through Oct. 6 for around $2. We've got links and video after the break.

Hipmunk flight search app now available for Android

Searching for flights is a pain. Searching for flights with a chipmunk -- excuse us, Hipmunk -- is far less a pain. Yep, Hipmunk is now available for Android. With just a few taps, you can search and select flights, purchase on your phone's browser or (and this is our favorite part) start on the phone and finish on the computer.

Scheduling travel just got a lot easier on Android. Hipmunk's free, and we've got Market links after the break.

AppBrain re-invents social app discovery with the AppBrain Stream

The folks at AppBrain (remember them?), those same fellows who brought the original web installer for Android to the masses, today unveiled the AppBrain Stream. It's a lot like Facebook style social networking, but geared towards, and all about, your Android apps. AppBrain has always been a great way to discover and share Android applications, but the new user streams and feeds really take it all to the next level. If you feel a bit overwhelmed by all the other great tools AppBrain gives us, like daily "hot" apps, personalized recommendations, app demographics, and shared user app lists, you're going to love this.

It's genuinely simple -- you now have a couple new entries on your AppBrain page that show your personalized stream of app-related news and events. You'll see things like messages from your friends when they install a new app (or uninstall an app), personalized recommendations for new apps based on what you're currently using, updates to apps you're running, even app reviews from your friends and discussion about them. You can "like", share or add commentary to each of these entries, just like you would at your favorite social networking site. You can also see just your activity in a dedicated list, to keep track of apps you're talking about.

There's no setup involved -- if you follow someone on AppBrain, you'll see their activity in your stream. The guys at AppBrain let us in a bit early to check it out, and I'll have to say -- this has real potential. No more relying on cryptic or less-than-helpful comments in the Market, or using a random Google search to try and find what your looking for. Like the staff picks on the official Android Market, it will be a great way to find new apps that fit you, with the added bonus of goofing off a bit with your friends. We've got a couple screenshots after the break, as well as a link to download AppBrain to your phone so you can join in. And as we've said before -- Google, just buy these guys already.

Skype adds video calling -- and ads - to another round of phones

You don't usually get sumpthin' for nothin', and the adage rings true with the latest update to Skype for Android. The good news: A baker's dozen devices have had video calling turned on, but at the price of having to put up with advertising. You can get around the ads (which show up for everyone, not just the new crop) if you've got Skype credits laying around, which we're betting most of you don't.

Amazon explains the Silk browser on the Kindle Fire

What do you get when you take a traditional web browser, crunch it through some cloud servers, compress the data and make it more mobile friendly by sharing the load locally as well as in the back end? That's Amazon's Silk browser. Actually, it sounds a bit familiar, but it's going to get some prominent play on the new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, which is likely to be a hot seller when it launches Nov. 15 for $199. Check out the video above for how it all works.

CMT and Sprint team up to create the latest Sprint ID pack for country music fans

If country music is your thing and you're a Sprint customer, the latest Sprint ID may be right up your alley. The folks from CMT have teamed up with Sprint to create the ultimate country music Sprint ID pack complete with apps, widgets wallpapers and more. Included in the pack aside from Rhapsody, Soundhound and The Grand Ole Opry is quite a few CMT select items such as:

The CMT ID pack is free to download with an Everything Data plan from Sprint on supported Sprint ID devices. You can check out the pull press release past the break or hit up the source link for the full details.

Rather then just simply offering you another address book, Smartr organizes your address book and takes it to the next level by offering a solution of making sure the people you contact the most, are always at your fingertips. Contacts are no longer arranged alphabetically, your contacts are now ranked by how often you reach out to them -- bringing the most important to the top. In addition to the better organization, profiles can be completely filled out with a photo, job title, company details, email history, common contacts and info from social networks.

Acessing your Smartr contact information is easy as well, you have access to them from the home screen, via the main search bar, the widgets, or the Smartr app. If you're in need of a better contact management system for your device, give Smartr a look. Couple it with Smartr contacts for GMail and you have a pretty awesome solution for keeping your contacts organized. We're going to have a full review up soon but for now -- it's available in the Android Market for free and you'll find the download, press release and a video further explaining the services past the break.

Android App Review: Sandisk Memory Zone

Better known for its microSD cards, Sandisk has released its own memory management application onto the Android Market. Whereas popular file management apps like Astro allow you to dive deep into the file system on your device, Sandisk aims to cast a wider net by linking into cloud storage services as well.

The underlying intent is to assist you with backing up your device's contacts, photos, music, videos, documents and even apps to either your memory card, or to your Dropbox and Box.net accounts. It also works the other way allowing you to restore from these locations. You can set up your backups to occur automatically at different time intervals using the "Backup/Restore" function. This only allows you to utilise automatic backups over wifi by default, so you don't need to worry about gigabytes worth of data uploading in your pocket while you're sat on the bus. There is still an option to allow upload over cellular data though should you want it.

The app also allows you to access your Picasa and Google Docs accounts. Through both of these services you can both upload to and download your content from the cloud to your device as well as deleting files from your cloud storage.

The app has a really nice looking UI, and splits all your files into type; music, images, videos, documents, and applications. If theres something specific you have in mind that you're trying to find, a little of the work is taken care of.

It comes at the moment with the beta tag, but feels really polished and could well replace a number of memory management applications by combining so many services into one.

Sandisk Memory Zone is available free in the Android Market. Download links and screenshots available after the break.

The list of desktop changes is a bit longer, but rememeber that the mobile app is cut from the same cloth, and we're very much enjoying this accelerated release schedule. Download links are after the break.

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